The Sri Lankan government gains the most amount of tax from intoxicants from the Tamil North-East stated Maithripala Sirisena.
The Sri Lankan president said that the areas were the government collects the most tax was from Jaffna, Nuwara Eliya and Batticaloa respectively.
Alongside a rises in alcohol use, there has been an increase of illegal drug usage across the North-East, which civil society activists and politicians say has been contributing to the breakdown of the social fabric of the North-East.
Mr Sirisena added that the government gains Rs. 32 billion from taxes on various intoxicants in rural areas, whilst it spends Rs. 16 billion on their welfare annually.
See our earlier post:
Drug smuggling in North-East aimed at eradicating Tamil society says Chief Minister (07 May 2016)